Sunday, September 27, 2015

A Step in the Write Direction--September 28, 2015--more nonfiction hints

A Step in the Write
Direction

September 28, 2015

Update: This
has been a good week. Had new tile installed in one bedroom, one more to go.
Still doing a lot of sorting….My home church in Michigan has set up a home page
and people are sending in photos of the “good ol’ days.” I went through and
found about 40 photos and 66 slides. Two of the photos were my mother’s and go
back to 1929 and 1938. My nephew (who’s smarter than I am!) is going to put them
in some kind of an album for home page. Looking forward to seeing it…. After
going through many resumes, our church board has selected one applicants who will be preaching at our church
next Sunday. Praying he’ll be the one….Don’t forget to send in any prayer
requests you have. Mine this week is for my daughter who is having many health
problems: high white count (16,000), high liver count (179), high A1C (9.3), and
stomach pains. Has an appointment Wednesday with an oncologist, and a
neurosurgeon on the 16th for the back injury she had when she fell
and tore her rotator cuff (still recuperating from that surgery).
Thanks!

Thought for
the Day: Corrie ten Boom was once asked if it was difficult for
her to remain humble. Her reply was simple. “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and
throwing garments on the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one
moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him? If
I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give him all the
praise and all the honor.”
http://biblebaptistcares.com/2010/05/12/jesus-donkey

Song for the Day:

Come to my soul, blessed
Jesus.

Hear me, O Saviour divine!

Open the fountain and cleanse
me;

Give me a heart like Thine.

Judson
W. Van Deventer, “A Heart like Thine”

Laugh for the Day: A young boy called the pastor of a local church and asked
him to come by to pray for his mother, who was very ill with the flu. The pastor
knew the family and was aware they were members of another church down the road.
So the pastor asked, "Shouldn't you be asking your pastor, Brother Simon, to
come by to pray with your mom?" "Yeah," the young boy replied, "but we didn't
want to take the chance that he might catch whatever it is that Mom
has."

Writer’s
Tips:

Last week we talked about how you have experienced things
in a completely different way than other people, so you are the only one who can
write about that experience in your own voice.

Years
ago I could have written an article on suicide. I could give statistics on how
it’s the third-leading cause of death for teens.[i]
I could give warning signs for parents and friends to look for. I could even
list places where a teen could go for help. But the article would end
there—facts only, no emotion.

After
my great-nephew committed suicide, however, leaving behind an eight-month-old
son, I could describe in detail the horrific emotion each family member
experienced that day: my sister who found him hanging on his bedroom door, my
brother-in-law who attempted CPR, my niece who didn’t get to the hospital in
time to see her son take his last breath, his girlfriend who sobbed, “Didn’t he
know how much we all loved him?”

This
is what will grab your reader. It’s more than statistics. It’s writing! And this is what will set your
article apart from all the others.

About Me

Donna Clark Goodrich, freelance writer, editor, and speaker is a wife, mother of three and grandmother of two. A native of Jackson, Michigan, she has lived in Mesa, Arizona, since 1969. She enjoys teaching at Christian writers conferences. Author of 23 books and over 700 published manuscripts, Donna says, “I write devotional and self-help books to encourage Christians in their daily walk with God, how-to books to train writers, biographies to tell other people's stories, short stories and poetry for readers' enjoyment, and personal experience articles to share how God has helped me through life situations.”
dgood648@aol.com; www.thewritersfriend.net